While a dolly move follows a tense chase in The Guardian, because the camera's movement isn't noticeable in comparison to the actor, it doesn't tire the viewer's eyes out very much. (Picture courtesty of Nick Denney, 2009)
Your actors should noticeably move, but your cameras should not.
Now, this is one of those things that needs to be clarified. Some of the most amazing shots in action films can come from moving cameras. These can be everything from great steadycam shots that follow someone running to car mounted chase cams to technocranes of people talking. The biggest thing with most of the best uses of moving cameras in action films is that the motion isn't noticeable. Handheld cameras and action films are usually a bad idea. Because hand-held cameras in high action situations make it so hard for people to see what's going on, they feel out of control and, as such, the audience doesn't feel as though the hero is in control. This is why Horror and War movies use hand-held so often, because they want viewers to feel as out of control and as helpless as possible. The Action movie, on the other hand, is designed to make you feel as though the hero can overcome all odds—that he/she is somehow greater than an average person. As such, using controlled cameras that don't visibly shake makes the viewer feel that the hero has things under control. (Additionally, smooth motion shots are actually more “normal” to the viewer, as the human brain adjusts for shaking when we run someplace ourselves so that our vision never appears as shaky as most handheld camera shots do.) A good example of films that broke this rule tremendously were Paul Greengrass' films The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, both of which used such ragged hand-held camerawork that they actually could induce migraines. (In fact, so chaotic was the hand-held camera in The Bourne Ultimatum, that, in one shot, the cameraman appears to lose track of Matt Damon's character completely and, having lost his target, simply pans to a wall for no reason. Even stranger than this shot is that Paul Greengrass decided that this apparent gaff should be left in the final edit.) Additionally, moving cameras will tire the audience's eyes. The more noticeable the movements are, the more tired your audience tends to get, even if they don't become nauseated or get a migraine.
If your actors aren't moving, try moving your cameras.
This refers to dialogue sequences that need to occur to set certain plot points in place. Because standard lock-down tripod shots with close ups and internal reverses often will feel out of place in an action film, consider building a dolly and a crane. (We have a number of how-to articles on this here at the magazine.) Once you've built these things, try slowly moving around your actors or slowly shifting perspective with a crane. The movement of the camera adds visual interest and a feeling of action, even if dialogue is the only thing that is happening. One of the masters of this technique is Michael Bay, especially in his classic film, The Rock. Now, be aware that, even with slow moving cameras, camera motion does tire the eyes out. (Even camera motion that doesn't strictly move the camera, like a rack focus, tires the eyes if done too often, so try to use these effects at crucial times.) Be aware of this so that you don't make your film too long and tire your audience out too much before the end.
When editing, avoid excessively short/strobe cuts.
A carryover of MTV/VH1 music videos, excessively short cuts (sometimes called “Strobe Cuts”) involve editing together extremely short pieces of footage (usually from 3 seconds to half a second) back to back. This has the same issues that both fast motion and hand held camerawork has: it feels very artificial, it prevents the audience from seeing what's going on, and it tires the audience out. While this has become much more prominent in recent years with films like The Tranporter 3, it has been around since early video-game adaptations like Street Fighter.
Clearly defined lighting makes it easy to see what's going on in an execution scene in Infamous. (Picture courtesty of AJ Wedding, 2008)
Light your film properly, so that environments and characters are easy to see.
This is a huge difference between Action and Horror films. Action films are about the hero being empowered, as such, the audience needs to be able to see the environment and the action clearly. Horror movies are about characters being out of control and, usually, hunted, so the audience often can't see the environment clearly at all. Because of this distinction, I would say that Blade and Blade Trinity were both action films whereas Blade 2 was a Horror film. Likewise, even though Underworld is a movie about monsters, it's lit and shot like an action film, not a horror film.
